Workers' Compensation News

JURISDICTION AND SUBROGATION
In Moore v. William Jessup University (2015) 81 CCC 31, the 3rd District Court of Appeal held that a delivery driver's negligence claim against a third party for inaccurately stating the weight of a box was barred under the assumption of risk doctrine....Read More

Just when you thought workers’ compensation subrogation in this country’s most difficult state could not get any more difficult, it does. In Zaldivar v. Prickett, 774 S.E.2d 688 (Ga. 2015), Prickett sued Zaldivar for injuries resulting from a 2009 work-related auto accident. The defen...Read More

It is hard to imagine Illinois subtly but certainly facing legal/legislative turmoil, confusion and disarray at the hands of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association but we assure you it was present. We send kudos to the august members of our highest state court for pulling our state back to a semb...Read More

BUSINESS OF INSURANCE
In San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District v. General Reinsurance Corp. (2015) 80 CCC 712, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California held that it had jurisdiction to make a factual determination regarding the date of injury in a breach of ...Read More

Oklahoma has seen its share of changes in its workers’ compensation laws of recent. On May 6, 2013, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signed Senate Bill 1062 into law, creating a new Title 85A of the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Act to operate in parallel with existing Title 85, and on...Read More

The California Supreme Court has reversed a Court of Appeal decision, which had in turn reversed a Worker's Compensation Appeals Board award of dependency benefits in South Coast Framing v WCAB (Clark). The ...Read More

The ongoing saga in Pennsylvania – colloquially referred to as the “reluctant plaintiff problem” – has perhaps come to an end. Section 671 of Pennsylvania’s Workers’ Compensation Subrogation Statute couldn’t be clearer. It unambiguously states, “&he...Read More

Could the California courts finally be ready to rule on the constitutionality of independent medical review?
We may be on the verge of seeing that issue decided.
On Dec. 3, the California Court of Appeal First Appellate District, Division One ...Read More

On Sept. 6, 2006, Wanda Jacobs injured her back while working at her job for Cenveo, Inc. – a manufacturer of envelopes, labels and related items. She was treated at the emergency room the next day and released. Her treating physician – Dr. Marinela L. Turc – said that Wanda cou...Read More

I recently asked some individuals if the workers' compensation system might experience big disruptions in the next three years.
They answered by a strong consensus that the downward trend in work injuries will not reverse itself, nor accelerate. At least half considered as proba...Read More

Today's Round Up

02/20/2018 |
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Charlotte workers’ compensation defense attorney Amanda Witzke has been appointed to serve as a deputy commissioner for the North Carolina Industrial Commission.
Amanda Witzke
Industrial Commission Chairman Charlton Allen announced Witzke’s appointment last week.
Witzke joins the Industrial Commission from the law firm of Willson Jones Carter & Baxley, which represents employers and carriers in workers’ compensation and liability matters in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
She holds a bachelor’s and law degree from the University of North Carolina a...
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02/20/2018 |
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A long-gestating proposal to create an intermediate court of appeals in West Virginia has gained approval in the West Virginia Senate.
Sen. Patricia Rucker
The chamber passed Senate Bill 341 along party lines on Thursday, with all but one Democrat voting against it, The Register-Herald newspaper of Beckley, West Virginia, reported.
Business and insurance interests back SB 341, saying an intermediate appellate court system would create “some predictability and better case law,” as West Virginia Insurance Federation president Jill Rice put it.
The West Virginia Association...
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02/20/2018 |
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California workers’ compensation carrier Zenith Insurance Co. has sued the Texas Institute for Surgery over more than $1 million in medical bills associated with a brain injury sustained by an injured worker while she emerged from anesthesia after ankle surgery.
Zenith writes that 38-year-old Tyra Price’s brain injury “would not have occurred but for the negligent, careless and/or reckless conduct” of Texas Institute for Surgery, whose staff allegedly failed to keep Price’s airways clean, resulting in cardiac arrest.
The lawsuit, filed earlier this month in the ...
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